Friday, August 31, 2012

Book Review: Losers in Space

TITLE: Losers in Space
AUTHOR: John Barnes
PUBLISHED: 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: parody/science fiction/dystopian
PREMISE: A group of teens in the future have a plan to get famous in a future where fame is everything. But then things go wrong...
MY REVIEW: So this book is kind of difficult for me to review. A large part of me loved the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy sort of feel to it. I totally got what the author was trying to say with it and I dug the overall message. Plus the notes for the interested could sometimes get hilarious and I adore the snarkiness of the authors note in the beginning. If you think he's kidding about the "hardcore" science fiction readers, no. He seriously isn't.
On the other hand though...another part of me found it hard to get into. Mostly because I found the characters endlessly irritating. I don't think there was one character I liked. I mean the MC had her moments for sure but her intro was ruined by how just plain bitchy she was and still was through out the novel. Flawed characters are interesting sure, but when you find it hard to actually like anyone...that's a problem. Plus, as fun as the snarky tone of the book was, it dragged. Like a lot.I'd wadger about a hundred pages or so could have been cut. It's bad when you find the notes explaining things in the world more interesting then the actual plot itself.
So my conundrum is: I find the book well written and I like the ideas going on in it....but it's rather boring and I don't see many people, except for really big science fiction readers getting into this.
WHO SHOULD READ: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy fans, parody fans, Terry Pratchett fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five broken space ships﻿

About Me

I am a long-time book lover who reads mostly fantasy oriented things but also mystery, historical fiction, sci-fi and anything that strikes my fancy. There's a mixture of YA, Adult, and occasionally Middle-Grade books on here. Some obscure, some best-sellers. I'm really not picky when it comes to books.
Most books you'll see here are acquired from the library or bought with my own money. Occasionally there will be ARCs from Net Galley.